A. Zdvizhkou: "I Will Breathe Calm As Soon As I Leave the Territory of Belarus…"

A. Zdvizhkou is going to leave Belarus, to change his citizenship and to leave the journalist trade in the nearest future. He told about that to his colleagues during his first press-conference after the release from prison, held at the Central Office of Belarusian Association of Journalists on February 25, 2008.

"I don’t want to be a citizen of THIS Republic of Belarus that has THESE courts, THIS Public Prosecutor’s Office and THESE prisons", the former Deputy Editor-in-Chief of "Zhoda" newspaper emphasized during his speech. "I understand pretty well that I’m not in safety now, and that I will be able to breathe calm only as soon as I leave the territory of Belarus", noted the journalist.

As for his creative plans, he stated that he was keen on substituting his journalist activity with the writer’s work.

The media worker compared three months of his imprisonment to «a journalistic assignment», as he wouldn’t have got the same experience in ordinary conditions.

Alaksandr Zdvizhkou believes that the current severe conditions of keeping prisoners in Belarus caused, in particular, deterioration of his eye-sight by 30% (he spent three months behind bars). One lamp Wt 40 in the height of 3.5 m was the only available source of light for reading and writing in the cell. Prisoners had to sleep in shifts in Minsk police prison in Valadarski Street for the lack of places for sleeping.

As before, A. Zdvizhkou believes that the scandalous caricatures, which were re-printed on his initiative in "Zhoda" had nothing in common with offending the Muslims' religious feelings, as the caricatures were re-printed as pictures without the offending notes.

According to the Muslim religion, there are no canonic pictures of Allah or Mohammed the Prophet. Consequently, according to A. Zdvizhkou, it was the Belarusian Public Prosecutor’s Office that offended the Muslims, treating the cartoons as "caricatures on Mohammed the Prophet" during the legal investigation and the court session in reality.